Twinflower

Carl Linnaeus’s favourite flower – a plant named after him, with which the great botanist himself posed for his portraits.

The twinflower is a creeping, evergreen dwarf shrub with long, thin shoots and small, roundish leaves. In summer, short, forked stalks rise from the creeping shoots, each bearing a pair of nodding, pale pink, almond-scented, bell-shaped flowers. It grows in shady, mossy conifer forests and birch woods, forming extensive, dense patches. It is a glacial relic and is rare and protected in many Central European countries, including Poland.

Significance in the country

The genus Linnaea was named in Linnaeus’s honour by his friend, the Dutch botanist Gronovius, and Linnaeus himself made the plant his personal emblem and placed it on his coat of arms when he was ennobled. Linnea is the provincial flower of Småland, where the scientist was born, and its name is a popular Swedish girls’ name.

Where it grows

In conifer forests across almost the whole country, from Småland to Lapland; rarest in the farmed lowlands of Skåne.

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